


Fall Away

by chiefenjolras



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Character Death, Danvin - Freeform, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-26 05:43:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3839239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiefenjolras/pseuds/chiefenjolras
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan finds himself as a ghost and returns to his old life with Gavin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fall Away

Dan had stopped caring that he was dead. Honestly, after a few months that kinda information just seemed kind of useless, he was dead and nothing could change that so why fret? So he ignored it, and along with his death he ignored and eventually forgot the last four digits of his security code, what coffee he liked to order from Starbucks, the name of his first dog and many other mundane things.

Some things were harder to ignore. Mainly people, and occasionally he found himself returning to a fond childhood memory. People were harder to ignore because it was harder to let go. That coffee and ones own coffin six feet under are easier to brush under the rug than when he watched his parents go through a grieving process. Watching them succeed in the process of grief was bittersweet because he couldn’t forget about people but when you’re invisible, how easy can people forgot about you? So Dan would do small things to let his parents know he was there and it made him feel better to get a reaction.

Another person he found himself returning to was a childhood friend, and lover. His name was Gavin and they had been best friends since Middle School. Gavin had been the exact opposite of Dan in the beginning. Where Dan was quiet and shy, Gavin was loud and moderately obnoxious, and Dan loved that. Gavin brought him out of his shell and for that Dan owed him everything.

Gavin took his death hard. Dan didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t this. He didn’t expect for Gavin to sit in the floor of their bedroom staring at the floor for hours before and after work or to start crying as he sat in traffic. It just wasn’t Gavin. Gavin was clever, funny, energetic and overall brilliant but Dan could see that he was running half-empty.

He tried to contact him in some way as he did with his parents but every attempt was seemingly brushed off and he wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not. Gavin was gullible, but always stubborn as well. Even the day Dan left.

About a year earlier Dan had been doing strictly office work but one day he had gotten orders to return to England and immediately dispatch to South Asia, but wasn’t expected to run into any conflict. He tried to tell that to Gavin, to convince him that everything would be okay and that he would be back within anywhere from a few months to a year, but he would be back. Gavin refused to believe him, calling him an absolute donut. He insisted that Dan had already done his duty to the military, why did he owe them any more of him time? As much as Dan hated the idea of having to leave home it was his job and he couldn’t quit. He had to leave Gavin behind and hope to god both of their fears were unnecessary.

He fucking hated it when Gavin was right.

A few months later he had gone and gotten himself killed by a roadside bomb.

He woke up, his body a visceral mess in the dirt. He watched his men pick themselves up from the wreck of a jeep, scarred and broken, but alive nonetheless and wondered how that could have happened.

He followed the chunks of his body as they picked it up and shipped it back in a mahogany coffin covered by the Union Jack. He sat in at his own funeral, watching the procession with a mixture of numbness and morbid curiosity. He followed his parents home after they set his body six feet under and then when Gavin returned to the U.S. he followed him there and stayed with him.  Gavin laid on Dan’s side of the bed the night they returned home and Dan on his, pressed up as close as his ethereal body could.

At first he was upset that he was dead, angry that the remainder of his life was robbed from him simply because the route taken by the jeep ended up being the wrong one and what were the chances of that? Why had those other men lived while he had died? What made their lives more important than his? What transgressions had he committed in his life that had led up to that moment in which his remains were scattered on the road? These questions had plagued him daily until one day he just stopped. He was dead, bitching and worrying constantly wasn’t going to change anything, he just had to make the best of his situation.

So Dan got use to being a ghost and tested his predicament. Back then he could pass right through bodies, unable to get a grip on anything, but as time went on he got better. Eventually he could move dust with his finger and knock stuff off tables, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t make any part of himself visible. Between hanging around Gavin, and going back to England to see his parents, he worked almost constantly on his form. Yet, he never seemed to advance. That was, until Gavin almost got hit by a car.

Dan had slept later than usual and had missed Gavin heading off to work. Dan technically didn’t need to sleep, but it made him feel more human if he did, and it helped pass the time. He never followed Gavin to work, figuring it would be slightly stalkerish and everybody needed alone time, even if they didn’t know they weren’t alone, but he still liked to join Gavin during breakfast. Sometimes it felt almost as if nothing had ever changed, he was just a little more invisible than normal. Dan still talked to Gavin, but just pretended he wasn’t heard over the tv. When Gavin left, usually Dan walked around the city that day, but the day he slept in, he sat outside on the steps, watching people walk by and pestering the neighborhood cat into hissing at him. It was amusing, especially when people walked by to see a cat hissing and spitting at nothing. Maybe someday somebody would claim the house was haunted.

Sometime in the afternoon he perked up when he noticed Gav coming from across the street, head down with headphones nestled on top, head bobbing slightly to the beat. He twirled the cord around a finger as he listened to his music. Dan would have thought it endearing if not for the car blasting its horn that was heading straight for Gavin. Dan half expected him to lift his head and stop, but it never happened.

Dan stumbled from the front stairs and took off toward the street, yelling Gavin’s name and praying either he would stop or the car would. Of course, why should God listen to a dead man?

Dan slammed into Gavin, throwing him back onto the sidewalk as the car whizzed past them. The headphones flew off and Gavin looked up in surprise. For a moment Dan thought Gavin saw him and when he reached out to touch him his hand went right through. Gavin leaned forward to look at the car that had nearly killed him before fixing his skewed headphones and standing up, swearing softly, and looking at his skinned elbows.

Dan followed Gavin back to the house, fuming, wishing he could regain some form of solidity again so he could sock Gavin in the jaw for being so stupid. When did he turn into some damn guardian angel for this idiot? ‘Do you have a damn deathwish?’ He wanted to scream. Storming into the house, Dan forgot himself. He grabbed the front door and slammed it shut behind them. He froze in surprise and looked back at the door and then to Gavin who was staring at the door. “Bloody wind.” Gavin muttered and went into the kitchen, leaving Dan to stand at the entrance.

That night he laid next to Gavin and the thought crossed his mind. What if he had let Gavin get hit? Would he be laying next to a broken man in a hospital bed instead? Or would he be laying next to someone he could finally touch and talk with after months.

How selfish are you, you right prick?

Dan winced at his own thoughts and rolled out of the bed. Did he seriously consider killing Gavin because he was lonely? He never thought that spending so much time among the living could affect him so adversely, and who was he kidding, that wasn’t the first time it had crossed his mind. Glancing back at Gavin, Dan knew he needed to get out. If not forever, then at least till he sorted his thoughts out. Besides, maybe his presence held a negative effect on both of them and it was time for him to go anyways.  So he left.

Dan had never truly been alone since the day he died. He was afraid that if he stayed away from people too long he would begin to fade, and he was terrified of what might be in the afterlife or if he would simply cease to exist. Dan was never a religious man but more than ever did he wish the skies would open up and something would say, “follow me.” It never happened. The afterlife wasn’t much of a life at all.

 

\----

 

Two months had passed since Dan left Gavin alone and he was wandering the city. Honestly, as a ghost he could go anywhere and nothing would stop him, but he loved the loud sounds of the city and the hustle and bustle. It was easy to get swept away in it all.

Easy enough, until people on the street stopped and pointed up at one of the building. When Dan looked up his heart would have stopped if it was beating. He could faintly see a person standing on the edge of the building. Without considering whether or not he could make it in time or who it was Dan took off toward the building, praying that he could pull the stranger from the ledge.

When Dan reached the top of the building he nearly tripped through the door to the roof and was moderately relieved to find the person still standing there. He yelled their name, but there was no response. Finally the stranger turned around, his back to the street and the murmur of the people down below.

Gavin.

“Dan? You there, B? I can’t see you, but I can feel you. You were gone for awhile there, thought you had bloody well left me, you right prick.” Gavin smiled briefly. “Don’t worry, B. I’ll be there soon.”

He spread his arms and fell backward.

Dan cries out and launched himself forward, trying to catch Gavin. All thoughts and preoccupations had left him when Gavin spoke directly and when they made contact he passed right through.

Without thinking, Dan launched himself off the building after Gavin. He easily caught up with Gavin’s falling body. There was nothing that could save him now, not Dan, not even the grace of god. He couldn’t save him, but he could make it easier. Dan remembered death and the pain that came with it and knew he would never wish that upon Gavin. Closing his eyes, Dan wrapped his arms around Gavin and held him tight. Before they hit the ground Dan felt his body meld into Gavin’s and for the briefest moment, he had a living body of his own. Then he died all over again.

**Author's Note:**

> I had a few more finite endings planned out but I decided to keep it open ended. Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
